Stosur wins Wimbledon opener

Australia’s top-ranked player safely progressed to the second round with a relatively comfortable 7-5 6-3 win at the All England Club on Monday.

Stosur’s reward is a showdown on Wednesday with former finalist Sabine Lisicki, who looked ominous in dispatching rising American Shelby Rogers 6-1 6-3 in less than an hour.

Seeded 14th after her run to this month’s French Open semi-finals, Stosur offset four aces with six double-faults but dropped serve just once in the 77-minute workout.

The former US Open champion was playing her first grand slam match under new coach Andrew Roberts, the Tasmanian helping Stosur during the grasscourt season following her split from long-time mentor David Taylor.

Roberts would have been impressed with Stosur’s confident start as she held her opening two service games to love before breaking Linette to charge ahead 3-1.

But as the errors began to creep in, Stosur dropped serve and appeared to be heading to a tiebreaker until breaking the world No.92 for a second time to nab the opening set after 44 minutes.

Stosur cruised through the second set without facing a break point and clinched victory with an ace.

Sam Groth is the only other Australian in action on the opening day, up against Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori.